The Indonesian government blocked nearly 101 million prepaid SIM cards in March after mobile users failed to re-register their prepaid numbers with a valid identity document.

Meanwhile, 305 million SIM cards were re-registered during the period.

Market leader Telkomsel had 43.3 million blocked SIMs (see chart , click to enlarge), while 3 Indonesia was second with 26.7 million.

In late October 2017, The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (known locally as Kominfo) ordered all mobile subscribers to re-register their SIM cards in an effort to clean up operators’ databases and combat misuse of SIM cards.

The government noted that over the past decade or so many Indonesians bought SIM cards using fake names and without any valid ID or family card. In most cases, the statement went on to say, this was innocent as buyers simply wanted to take advantage of new or temporary discount or promotional packages (fake names had to be used as there is an official limit of three SIM cards per Indonesian citizen).

However, the lack of clear data also left room for criminal activities.